1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a sanitary household or laboratory article in the form of a drip catcher of the apply-and-discard type. Previously, drip catchers have been known for example in the shape of a small pad or roll of hydrophilic material which, by the use of rubber bands or strings, is positioned under the spout of a tea or coffee pot. Such drip catchers are frequently used for too long before their replacement or washing so that not only may they assume an unaesthetic brown discoloration, but frequently they also become oversaturated with liquid and consequently drip, since the precise point of their saturation cannot be determined in due time.
2. The Prior Art
Other types of drip catchers, especially for one-time application, are for example disclosed in DK-C-41030, which describes the drip catcher as a piece of blotting paper that has been slit in the middle so that it can be pushed onto the spout of coffee pots, tea pots and the like; in DE-C-437,230 which discloses a drip catcher consisting of one or more layers of absorbing material that can be glued onto, e.g., a pitcher by a water soluble glue, which means that the drip catcher automatically is removed when the pitcher is washed in water; in DE-C-896,014 which discloses a drip catcher, consisting of an absorbent material with a thin outer layer of plastic foil and manufactured according to the sticking plaster principle; and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,063,590 which also describes a drip catcher consisting of an absorbing material with a thin outer layer of plastic foil, and which is folded to a conically-shaped ring before the drip catcher is placed loosely on the neck of a bottle.
These last-mentioned types of drip catchers suffer from the same shortcomings as the first-mentioned ones: They quickly turn unaesthetic because their absorbing material becomes visibly discolored long before the material is saturated; their saturation point cannot be clearly defined, and even a light blow to the container might cause the drip catcher to loose drops because the absorbing material is open in the downward direction as well. Such lost drops represent a serious hygienic problem, not least in large-scale kitchens, canteens, restaurants, laboratories and similar places. Loss of drops from the drip catcher itself is also a problem when using a different type of drip catcher consisting of a thin foil shaped as a flat liquid-tight pocket and opening up and being expandable according to the bellows principle known for example from U.S. Pat. No.4,415,100, especially FIGS. 1-4 in this publication. When using this type of drip catcher, drops are lost through the opening of the catcher when the container is inclined with the container opening pointing downwards, i.e., when a person tries to empty the container completely for liquid. Further, this type of drip catcher has the drawback that it will not be able to open up if applied on containers with convex or cylindrical surfaces.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a multipurpose drip catcher of the apply-and-discard type which remedies the above-mentioned drawbacks of prior art drip catchers and the use of which is not limited to special types of containers.